16th Sunday OT - The Power of WYD

This week, Pope Francis makes his way to Rio for his first World Youth Day (WYD) as pontiff.

I had the awesome opportunity to attend the 2002 WYD in Toronto. My parish didn’t have a youth group, but a friend invited me to go along, and I said yes.

Up until that point, my only experience of God or prayer was what I learned in my Catholic school education, through privately praying at night in bed or having intense and moving – yet private – experiences of intimacy with God at Mass. I just was not one to publicly proclaim or pray to God – he was very private and confined to the walls of my school, parish or bedroom.

July 2002, I was changed forever and the effects WYD had on me has never left.

If you have ever been to an event like this, you know that mere words cannot do it justice, the power of the Spirit eludes even the most eloquent of orators. You simply have to journey with a million or more youth and young adults for the sole purpose of giving witness to your shared Catholic faith to understand and feel the power of God there.

It wasn’t just seeing the very soon-to-be St JP2 three times throughout the week, or hearing catechesis, having lunch with strangers – yet brothers and sisters – from opposite ends of the globe; the blessings of the occasion was not just found in the opportunity to solidify your identity as a Catholic and member of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. For me, I think the most profound effect it had was seeing that my faith was not just something I held or did or prayed privately, but was also meant to be given and shared.

The gospel this weekend gives us the famous examples of Martha and Mary. Mary, the model of contemplation and Martha, the model of active and apostolic work. Mary wants to simply sit with Christ and be with Him, listen to him and love Him in the silence. Martha wants to use the relationship she has with Him to do things for Him and to serve Him actively.

Though these two are unique and different expressions of the same love and relationship with the Lord, neither is superior to the other. We don’t shun the apostolic life and give praise to the contemplative life. Often times, the image of John – the Beloved Disciple - and Peter – the first Pope -  is also used in place of Mary and Martha.

What we learn from the Gospel is that we cant treat either as exclusive and in opposition to the other, but as compliments to the same Mission in the One Church. Naturally, we each have our strengths and our preferences for how we live our lives contemplatively or actively. But what is important is that we value each other’s natural abilities and strengths in this and that we use them all for the building of the Kingdom.

At WYD, I was transformed from believing that I could only be a Mary to seeing that I had some of Martha in me as well.

Over the years I have grown in my awareness of this and coming to see how I live out each of them in my life. You can be a strong contemplative at heart, but a passionate defender of the Truth in the world. This is healthy spirituality and a place where we each have to get to. We need to know our natural abilities and strengths when it comes to prayer and living out our faith in the world and then develop them in the Light of the Truth.

WYD is such a gift to the Universal Church. It has been reported time and time again to have opened the doors to religious vocations for 1000s of young men and women (I count myself in those numbers) and has given millions of youth the courage to be a Mary at heart yet a Martha in the world.

Let us pray for the estimated up to 2 million visitors and pilgrims to Rio this week. Let us commend to our prayers Pope Francis that through his ministry as Shepherd will be able to lead innumerable souls to the beauty of the spiritual life and the demands of the active life.